Investigators are hoping to use a genealogy website to track down the Zodiac Killer — one of America's most mysterious unsolved cases that's left detectives and internet sleuths puzzling for over half a century.

It was a genealogy website that helped find the Golden State Killer after decades on the run, and police are hoping that the same technology might give them the break to finally solve the Zodiac case.

Authorities throughout California have been trying to hunt down the Zodiac Killer for decades. The killer, who left residents on edge in the 1960s, has been definitively linked to five killings.

However, the killer has seemingly claimed more than 30 killings and sent a series of bizarre and detailed letters to news organizations that included cryptograms, in which he called himself "Zodiac." During his spree, the killer also left two survivors, who helped offer a description.

Now, 50 years later, the Vallejo Police Department sent envelopes that accompanied the notorious letters to a lab for an advanced DNA analysis, according to The Sacramento Bee.

Nearby departments in San Francisco and Napa counties are also reexamining their evidence to see if new technology could help catch of the nation's most notorious serial killers, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The hope in Vallejo, the Bee reports, is to obtain a full DNA profile from the killer's saliva from stamps and the letter flaps. Then, it would be used to compile a family tree from an open-source database, Vallejo police Detective Terry Poyser told The Bee.

"If we get a good profile, then you start tracking back," Poyser said. "It really comes down to DNA. Without it, you have nothing. It's a 50-years-old case."

But, as Poyser said, it all comes down to the DNA and results. In the past, investigators have tried testing to obtain a DNA profile but due to mishandling of evidence before the days of DNA testing, much of the samples were compromised.letter

KUSA 9News – Boulder police and prosecutors are planning a new round of DNA tests on key evidence in the unsolved 1996 murder of 6-year-old JonBenét Ramsey, 9NEWS and the Boulder Daily Camera have learned. ... "We did meet with CBI and the district attorney's office, and

it seems highly likely they are also attempting to locate a suspect via geneological DNA, and as in many cases the suspect may well surprise us, anyone from a young man (in 1996) to someone who has already died of old age

one of the biggest lies RDI promote tricia griffith and others is, there's no evidence of an intruder, DNA is not evidnece of an intruder. trasha is doing a disservice in using her forms to promote this.

DNA is evidence of an intruder, and of a version of events that involve an intruder, and all the evidence found at the crime scene is to be understood in terms of an intruder.

It makes sense that they would look on the genealogical sites for familial DNA. They are a treasure trove of DNA. The intruder would have or would have had family. My sense is the intruder was someone young at the time like in his early to mid 20's.